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US 4,361,224 AGranted
Roller motion sensing accumulator
AssigneeLear Siegler, Inc.
InventorClyde Bowman
Life of this patent
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AssigneeLear Siegler, Inc.
InventorClyde Bowman
Estimating the term…
This invention relates to accumulator conveyors. During the past two decades many types of accumulator conveyors have been developed. These utilize a variety of different operating mechanisms and principles. This invention is in the field of accumulator conveyors which rely upon shifting the primary propelling member vertically between a raised position in which the propelling member is in driving contact with the lower faces of the article supporting and propelling rollers and a lowered position in which it is disengaged from these rollers. The invention is further directed to the type of accumulator in which the shift of the conveyor from conveying to accumulation mode and return to conveying mode is automatically controlled in response to the presence of the motion or lack of motion of an article on the conveyor. Heretofore, all conveyors of this type have had some type of sensor in the form of a roller, lever, wheel or pneumatic valve which is moved or triggered by an article near or over it. It is a common characteristic of these accumulators that most of them will not close-pack the articles as they are accumulated and they have the characteristic of significantly spacing or singulating the articles as they are released from accumulation. While these are desirable characteristics under certain circumstances, there are many applications in which the efficiency of the conveyor could be improved if these characteristics were eliminated because it would increase the throughput of the conveyor for a given length and belt speed.
An article conveyor and accumulator having a plurality of rotatable article supporting elements forming an article conveying surface, a powered belt for propelling articles along said conveying surface, a plurality of support units supporting said powered belt from beneath, said support units being arranged in groups lengthwise of said conveyor, an article motion sensing and transmitting means for each group responsive to the movement of an article superimposed above it and drivingly connected to the support units of the next upstream group;
An article conveyor and accumulator having a plurality of rollers forming an article conveying surface, a powered belt for driving said rollers, a plurality of support units supporting said powered belt from beneath, said support units being arranged in groups lengthwise of said conveyor, an article motion sensing and transmitting means for each group having a motion transmitting connection with an article above one group and drivingly connected to the support units of the next upstream group;
An accumulator conveyor having a plurality of rollers forming an article transporting and accumulating surface and a primary drive belt;
An accumulator conveyor having a plurality of rollers forming an article transporting and accumulating surface and a primary drive belt for propelling articles along said surface;
An accumulator conveyor having a plurality of rollers forming an article transporting and accumulating surface and a primary drive belt driving said rollers from beneath;
An accumulator having a plurality of rollers forming an article conveying surface, a powered belt for driving said rollers, a plurality of support units supporting said powered belt from beneath, said support units being arranged in groups lengthwise of said conveyor, a roller motion sensing and transmitting means for each group in contact with the rollers above one group and drivingly connected to the support units of the next upstream group;
An accumulator conveyor having a plurality of rollers forming an article transporting and accumulating surface and a primary drive belt driving said rollers from beneath;
An accumulator conveyor having a plurality of rollers forming an article transporting and accumulating surface and a primary drive belt driving said rollers from beneath;
An accumulator having a plurality of conveyor rollers forming an article conveying surface, a powered primary belt for driving said rollers from beneath for moving articles downstream opposite to the direction of movement of said belt, a plurality of support units supporting said primary belt from beneath, each of said units having a pair of inner wheels and a pair of outer wheels mounted on a common shaft and each having a flattened peripheral rest area, lost motion connections between said inner wheels and said outer wheels permitting the flattened surfaces of all wheels to be aligned or misaligned whereby the wheels, when misaligned, collectively form a circular primary belt supporting surface, said support units being arranged in groups along said conveyor, said accumulator characterized in that an endless sensing member is connected to the last upstream support unit of each group and extends downstream therefrom in fixed driven contact with at least some of the conveyor rollers above said group;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.